Scientists and Users the direct access for scientists, researchers and the users of our large-scale facilities

Welcome to the PSI portal for members of the scientific community. On the following pages you will find information about the scientific activities of all PSI departments and about the experimental opportunities at PSI's large-scale facilities, details of the application procedures for receiving beam time at the various instruments and contact information about PSI scientists.

The Paul Scherrer Institute runs Switzerland's Large-Scale research facilities for users from the national and international scientific community,
in particular for condensed matter, materials science and biology research. PSI is one of only two locations in the world providing the three complementary probes of synchrotron X-rays, neutrons and muons at one site.

The institute's own research activities concentrate on scientific projects that strongly benefit from the use of the large-scale facilities. These cover a broad range of topics that can be grouped into three large fields: “Structure of Matter”, “Energy and Environment” and “Human Health”.

Each year, approximately 2000 scientists from all over the world visit PSI to perform their experiments, in fields such as condensed matter or fundamental physics, chemistry, biology or materials science. PSI is one of very few places in the world offering the three major probes for condensed matter research (synchrotron X-rays, neutrons and muons) on one campus.

Photo on the left: Part of the Low Temperature Facility at the SμS muon source.